RCA Video On Demand Player (Akimbo)

Design of RCA Video On Demand Player (Akimbo)

The RCA Video On Demand Player is a bland, functional box that might otherwise be mistaken for a cable tuner or even an old VCR. On the front panel, there's both a power button and a directional pad, which is nice when the remote is missing. To the right of the directional pad are LED indicators that let you know how close your most recent download is to finishing and whether you have newly downloaded material. While it's nice to be able to see the progress without having to fire up your TV or switch inputs, home-theater purists will lament the fact that there's no option to turn off these lights altogether.

Akimbo's onscreen visual interface isn't up to TiVo standards, but it's improved from earlier versions and is mostly easy to use. The main menus used to find content are the Just In, Library, and Guide menus. As you might have guessed, the Just In menu shows you the most recently downloaded programs, as well as showing you the status of programs being downloaded plus the rest of your queue. The Library menu brings up your collection of downloaded material, which can be filtered by channel, alphabetical name, downloaded date, and that which is soon to be deleted. We would have liked the option to make our own organization scheme, but that's not really a knock as most network media players lack this feature. The Guide menu is used to find new programs to download, and you can browse by Recent Additions, Top Rated, Channel, Category, Search and Favorite Channels.

Another main menu is Member Central, which is used to keep track of your current subscriptions. We were able to sign up for subscriptions to the Turner Classic Movie of the Week and the Rocketboom video blog without any problems. An even better option would be if you could use the subscriptions like TiVo's Season Pass feature and, for instance, download every new episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force as they're broadcast on regular TV. Instead, you're limited to a more scattershot listing of what the content partners feel comfortable with releasing--which is often older episodes from past seasons.

The few interface annoyances we did encounter were more a result of the stubby remote control. It has only 17 buttons, and they're laid out in a less than intuitive fashion. For instance, it's often confusing as to whether to use the Back button or the left directional pad to return to a previous screen. Likewise, the fast-forward and rewind buttons also double as page-up and page-down keys. (As always, you could simply co-opt the RCA's onscreen functions with any decent universal remote control.)